The Art of Communication in Nursing and Health Care

Health care delivery is complex and scientifically grounded, and requires its practitioners to possess considerable knowledge and expertise. This book guides the reader through a conceptual framework for building effective patient relationships. Based on concepts of mindfulness, it provides a kind of mental scaffolding or operating platform on which to build thoughts, perspectives, and skills that help the busy clinician to achieve inner composure, attain greater self-awareness, and develop critical interpersonal skills that result in satisfying and compassionate patient care. In the first section of the book, mindfulness principles are embedded in discussions of the critical elements of interpersonal effectiveness, such as hope, empathy, and listening. The second section discusses how to navigate professional communication challenges. The third section provides chapters in which mindfulness principles are applied to challenging clinical situations. The fourth section describes effective approaches with challenging populations. Together, the applications in third and fourth sections give the reader concrete examples of mindfulness in action. The scenarios depicted throughout the book involve practitioners primarily from medicine and nursing. Nurses and physicians, trainees, social workers, and others are also presented in examples. However, with slight modifications, the scenarios are applicable across disciplines. Although the roles of nurses, social workers, and physicians certainly vary, the fundamental principles for establishing effective patient-provider encounters remain constant. And although the primary aim of the book is to promote mindfulness as a powerful method of enhancing patient-provider communication, the secondary aim is to promote mindfulness as a means of enhancing cross-disciplinary understanding.